Friday, November 13, 1998

Friday's weather was almost a duplicate of yesterday except for more cloudiness.Temperatures in the mid-thirties in the morning and a high of 59 in the afternoon. Winds were 10-15 mph from the southwest.

Series Six was a 200 yard water blind with three dry pops from a single gun station. The dogs then had to enter the water and swim past the gunners on the right hand short and continue on a line diagonally to the far shore where the duck was planted.

Most of the dogs had several whistles to the bird. Callbacks reflected that the dogs who had past weak performances required a better job on this blind than dogs who had better work on the prior tests.

10 Dogs were dropped after Series Six. 31 Dogs were called back to Series Seven.

Series Seven: Land Triple - completed

31 Dogs were called back to Series Seven.

The first Test Dog ran at 12:30 P.M. First running dog was Dog No. 58 at 12:55 P.M.

Series Seven was a Land Triple with two retired guns. The field was a cut corn field with varying cover and rolling terrain surrounded by a hedgerow of trees. When the dogs came to the line only two guns were visible, the long middle bird and the long right-hand bird. The first bird thrown was the middle bird, which was a hen pheasant thrown angled back to the left at 286 yards. The gunners stepped back into a holding blind hidden by brush. The right-hand gun station was located at the edge of the woods and threw a dead hen pheasant to the left into heavy cover at 195 yards. After the two long dead birds were down, the left-hand flyer guns walked out from a holding blind and shot a rooster pheasant to the right over the line to the long middle retired bird. The flyer landed in the middle of the test at 100 yards and the flyer guns then sat down. Dogs were required to honor on this test.

Series Seven Land Triple

The two retired guns caused many dogs to have very long and big hunts. However, there was some excellent work on this test by several dogs. Seven dogs handled on this set of marks, including two double-handles. Three dogs were picked up. The test was completed at approximately 4:45 P.M. Judges submitted callbacks at the headquarters hotel early Friday night. 9 Dogs were dropped after Series Seven and 22 Dogs were called back to Series Eight.